Osteoarthritis is the most common condition to affect human joints as well as a frequent cause of locomotor pain and disability. More particularly, osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee occurs in a substantial portion of the population over the age of fifty.
In spite of its societal impact and prevalence, however, there is a paucity of information on the factors that cause osteoarthritis to progress more rapidly in some individuals and not in others. Previously considered a “wear and tear” degenerative disease with little opportunity for therapeutic intervention, osteoarthritis is now increasingly viewed as a dynamic process with potential for new pharmacologic and surgical treatment modalites such as cartilage transplantation, osteochondral allo- or autografting, osteotomies and tibial corticotomies with angular distraction.
However, the appropriate deployment and selection of treatment interventions for OA is dependent on the development of better methods for the assessment of the condition of a patient's joint and the degeneration process.
There is, therefore, a need for improved methods for examining the factors that influence as well as quantification of the progression of the disease.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an accurate non-invasive imaging technique for visualization of articular cartilage in osteoarthritis, particularly in knees. However, current MRI techniques cannot provide information on the relationship between the location of the cartilage loss and variations in the load bearing areas during the walking cycle. This information is important since it has been shown that dynamic loads during walking are related to the progression of knee OA. Thus, the ability to locate cartilage defects or areas of cartilage thinning relative to the load bearing areas of the knee could be valuable in evaluating factors influencing the progression of osteoarthritis.